Elaine "Laney" (Sepkoski) Moravec

ROCHESTER, NY - April 12, 2021. Elaine is survived by her two daughters whom she loved and was devoted to, Melissa Moravec & Megan Moravec; siblings, Les (Terry) Sepkoski & Michael Sepkoski; companion, Bernie D'Agostino; nieces, nephews, cousins and dear friends.

Laney's funeral service will be celebrated, Sunday, April 25th, 12 PM at Bartolomeo & Perotto Funeral Home, Inc., 1411 Vintage Lane, (between 390 & Long Pond Rd.). In lieu of flowers donations may be sent to, Alzheimer's Association, 435 E. Henrietta Rd., Rochester, NY14620 in her memory.

Elaine was born July 30, 1962 in Steubenville, Ohio to Edward & Mildred (Caniff) Sepkoski. She and her brothers, Leslie & Michael grew up in Lansing, Michigan along with their dogs, Bandit & Cocoa.
After graduating from Waverly High School, where she excelled in all her courses, especially English, she went on to University at Buffalo to pursue a Dental Certificate and became a Dental Assistant.

Mom was married to Mike Moravec for about 9 years. Grandma Millie lived in the same apartment complex as him (dad) and insisted he meet her daughter, Elaine (mom). One year later mom and dad got engaged on Christmas Eve. By July of the same year, they were married. Missy and Megan were born 13 months apart, which was not planned. Mom's dad passed away while she was pregnant with Missy and her mom passed while she was pregnant with Megan (both in December, 20 days apart). Mom and dad divorced after 9 years of marriage.

Mom would keep an eye out in magazines and papers for funny animal pictures -- for example, a squirrel with human teeth, and hang them on the bulletin board of her dental exam room for her patients to enjoy. She would also collect poems and sayings and hang them there to offer patients comfort as they 'endured' the dentist (generally not anyone's favorite life experience). Her main work role was to make "temporaries" & crowns (for teeth). She also developed teeth x-rays and cleaned and sanitized all the necessary instruments to do her job well. She took this very seriously and would sometimes double-clean to ensure safety and cleanliness for all her patients.

In an effort to add color to a drab dental environment, she wore different colored scrubs to work when she could. Her hard work on the behalf of her patients is evident in her super dry, cracked hands due to how frequently she washed them (clean) and also the latex gloves (protection). She tried many lotions, like Lubriderm and balm oil to ease her discomfort.

Family trips to Wildwood, NJ was collectively mom, Missy, and Megan's favorite family vacation together. They loved boogie boarding and eating the food.

Holidays and vacations were intimate because it was generally just the three: Mom, Missy and Megan. Thanksgiving was probably our favorite holiday for the family. Food is important to us! Every Thanksgiving we had a pimento cheese spread with sesame crackers, corn bake, and pumpkin crunch. One year, Mom was tired of Missy and Megan's bickering and bantering (fighting -- she told them they sounded like elephants running around upstairs) and sent them out to run around the "circle" they lived on. That turned out to be the best Thanksgiving ever and brought everyone closer together.

On Christmas we usually had ham and played music while we ate dinner. One year mom made a Christmas ball where she used crepe paper to wrap small 'surprise' gifts for Missy and Megan to unravel. It highlighted her creativity and was an unforgettable experience and highlighted how giving and receiving gifts can be a collaborative and shared experience (each person unwrapped the paper until they arrived a gift, then swapped, etc.).

Mom liked being active and spending time outdoors when she could. In the summertime, she would spend a lot of time in her garden, planting flowers and then watering them. She was an aerobics/dance aerobics enthusiast for some time, and also enjoyed volleyball. Mom was very athletic and could throw a ball as hard as any guy could.

She loved to watch Friends, Law & Order SVU, Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, Judge Judy. She couldn't live without Blistex lip moisturizer. Purple was her favorite color. Merlot wine. She would say, "That's a pearl of wisdom" if there was a meaningful life lesson that she wanted Missy & Megan to remember. Mom would say, "Only floss the teeth that you want to keep."
Classic comfort dishes for our family included nachos, rosemary baked chicken breasts, velveeta mac 'n cheese, and pork medallions with star soup in the crockpot. Grandpa's pumpkin crunch was an absolute-must for holidays, especially Thanksgiving (so memorable a dish dad still remembers and asks for it!). Cattlemen was also a special dish, notable because it took a lot of time to cook and turned the clear dutch oven lid totally black and once opened, the meat inside was the tenderest.

Mom was usually open to feedback and new ideas. When the girls would stumble on new recipes that they liked, for example a zucchini bake or chicken taco that Missy had at a friend's house, or a homemade pizza recipe the girls learned in home-ec class, Mom incorporated them into her repertoire. The homemade pizza became a regular Monday-night experience, and the family would eat and watch Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy together. Meals together at the dinner table were a must and rarely were they missed.

Dinner table conversation varied, and Mom did not shy away from having the tough conversations. One time, Megan asked a question and Mom used what she had on the table -- salt and pepper shakers and other items, as a way to demonstrate.

Banana rama (mom and dad made orange banana blended drink with ice & cream and sold out every time selling this for charity for the church during Midvale Baptist Church basketball tournament)

Mom LOVED Elvis growing up (...wise men say...). She also loved Bon Jovi (she and Missy saw in concert once and their favorite song that show was Bed of Roses, a duet between Bon Jovi and his long-time bassist (at the time) and Def Leppard (one time after dropping Megan off at a friend's house, Mom and Missy heard this song that they loved in the car on the way home and searched together to find the name: Hysteria, solidifying a love of the band that they ended up seeing in concert (with Journey, another band she enjoyed)). She had a CD collection she kept with her stereo in the middle partition of a three-door bookshelf given to her by her mom.

Mom loved candles and usually kept two on top of the bookshelf (and kept a stockpile in the china cabinet). They would help fill the house with warmth. Pine-scents, pumpkin, gingerbread, and spice" y" candles were some of her favorites. She wore Chanel No. 5 on special occasions and would use some turquoise-scented spray on 'regular' days.

Mom wore a Mickey Mouse watch for a long time. The leather band broke once and she worked very hard to find a new replacement because she liked the Mickey Mouse face. She wore casual scrubs for work and also had beautiful clothes that she didn't get to wear nearly enough. Blueberry yogurt, Cheerios, honey bunches of oats with fresh blueberries, toasted oats were some of her favorite breakfasts. She loved to add a piece or two of buttered Italian toast with her cereals.

Mom had many nicknames: Laney, Eski or Esk (eeesk!) She was a welcoming, loving, inclusive, appreciative, hopeful, stubborn, strong, courageous, creative, clean, thoughtful.

Mom loved all of Missy and Megan's friends growing up and they loved her too. She was the type of mom that was involved, but not overbearing. She was anticipatory with others' needs, but also gave us time with our friends.

Mom was creative! She made a Dorothy wig for Megan out of a garbage bag and tied two red ribbons on the end. Megan was Pebbles from the Flintstones, so she cut up an orange towel and pasted black patches on it. Then we bought a fake bone and a hair clip and attached the two to make a hair piece. Mom was very innovative and tried to use what she had.

Mom loved the "cheeseburger bird" which we heard growing up at our townhouse which chirped 3 times. We used to mimic the sound with 3 whistles, and she remembered this during her dementia. Mom said she and her brother Michael would mimic the bird too.

Mom used to smoke for many years and even though it was a horrible habit she never smoked in the house; she used a turquoise-colored spray to hide the smell and used altoids. So, she was thoughtful in how this bad habit affected others and even had other smokers telling her how impressed they were.

Mom and dad played on the co-ed drill team-volleyball. She drove to work and went to the game after, and dad would meet her there on a bicycle and then they-d drive home together. Saturday there was a three blind mice tournament. Black plastic covered the side and the people on the other team. The referee sees everything. People on each team only saw the ball in the air sometimes but had to react quickly due to the plastic covering. They laughed so much because sometimes the ball would come over the net quickly and you had no idea and sometimes the ball would not come at all.

Dad accepted a job in Wisconsin while he and mom were engaged. They were married at Justice of Peace and then married at the rose garden. They were an active couple going to "camping rails to trails" bike riding. They would drive to places and ride bicycles on trails and in tunnels.

Mom had a great sense of humor. A co-worker of hers said, "sometimes we laughed together so much that we annoyed others. But we didn't care, we kept laughing and enjoying." Mom loved to poke fun at her Polish roots and enjoyed joking around with family and friends.

Mom and dad had a plot at a community garden. One time, Mom needed to urgently use the bathroom. Their condo was too far away, and it was one of those situations that just couldn't wait! Thankfully, someone was growing corn in their part of the garden and Mom found a little bit of solace and privacy in the greenery of the husks and did what she had to do.

Mom and dad were on vacation in North Carolina with baby Missy & Megan was a bun in the oven and they set up their umbrella and towels on the sand. They had a plastic bag that caught wind and mom tried to run to get the bag. She ran daintily to the bag and every time she arrived at the bag and reached to grab it, the bag would take wind and move away. This happened many times before she got the bag and then had to walk all the way back to their beach set up.

Mom was an encourager. She encouraged Missy & Megan with whatever activities they were interested in. She would pick us up and come to all the games. When Megan was a baby, she would rock back and forth on the floor and mom would say, "Go Megan go, go Megan go!"

Mom bought a townhouse in Clifton Park, NY with a big side-yard. She redesigned the landscaping, planted many flowers (e.g., pansies, begonias, sunflowers, marigolds, black-eyed Susan's, wildflowers) and created a fire pit and multiple gardens where she grew tomatoes, watermelon, pumpkins, and corn. She had cross country skis where she made tracks in the snow of our yard so Missy and Megan could follow the tracks one at a time. She assembled a badminton/volleyball net every summer and it became a central place to play for the neighborhood kids. Mom beautifully decorated the house and had a spoon collection, started by her father and cultivated by people in her life who loved her, displayed in the kitchen.

Mom was a beautiful person inside and out and as such, was almost always in a romantic relationship. While there are many people who came in and touched her life, there are four people who contributed especially significant meaning to her life. Each relationship taught her something about herself, and each person remembers the same two things: Mom was stubborn!! and, she loved her daughters the most. She loved English and loved editing Missy & Megan's papers for school.

Mom had a relationship with Barry Poppel that offered experiences she had with no one else. For example, they traveled to Puerto Rico, Germany, and France, and across the United States (for example, Disneyworld). Barry tried to take care of her kids and give Mom some space, especially while she was working toward her dental certificate. Through these experiences and new adventures, Mom's perspective was widened and deepened.

Mom and Adam Leonard met on cupid.com and were each other's first match. Over the course of time, this relationship-built thing that were amazing: For example, as a carpenter, Adam was able to bring Mom's architectural vision to life for the house. Even small changes like the color of a door or floorboard made a big difference in the vibe of the house, and Mom was definitely detail oriented. Both had been divorced before and had two daughters and connected over mini adventures like boating, listening to country music, and laughing a lot.

In the face of one of life's hardest adversities, dementia, Mom met Bernie and connected through personal experiences. Bernie has been a major source of support for mom, and we know he made her life more enjoyable and filled with love than it would have otherwise been during this hard and enduring moment in time. They bonded over the last several years through numerous outings including taking trips to the mall to walk around (mom LOVED walking -- even in the nursing home, all the staff would comment on the laps she would take around the building), walking the Rochester canal, and the Rochester Lilac Festival. Bernie loves her very much and that's why he cared for her.

Mom's legacy is love. Despite all the nice and warm and wonderful stories here, her life was also difficult, and she struggled through much of it. There were times that she thought she wouldn't make it through, didn't want to make it through, and, to borrow a phrase: nevertheless, she persisted. She survived a lot of challenging moments because she had even an unconscious sense of her inner strength and fortitude. It is this that she has passed on to her daughters and her legacy will be that they find this own light inside of themselves, and that they, like her, will inspire people in their lives to find and lean into their own sense of inner strength such that love will be felt deeply.

Her daughters, as someone wrote, "her Missy and her Megan were the great loves of her life," know that she loved them with a ferocity that, even in death, she will love forever. After all, it is the greatest of them all.

~ Written by Missy & Meghan